A common joke among IT professionals refers to how little interaction there often is with the technology side and the end customers prior to start of development. "Requirements? What requirements?" There have been many business theories to address building better requirements through focus groups, scenarios, and offsite requirement sessions. If time is spent building a great set of requirements, it will help you to achieve a good end result. The real question is - how do you get to a GREAT end result - above and beyond the customer's expectations? When does the customer become a fan or think of you as their partner or even as one of them? It isn't by building an exhaustive set of requirements. It is by actually becoming one of them or at least thinking like one of them. Profiling the customer and getting inside their mind is the key to satisfying their needs and also the key behind great innovations. Many of the greatest innovations were ones that actually satisfied the creator's own problems. This is not a new concept in theory. It has been used in many industries for many years. Profiling is probably best known by the media in the criminal justice system to catch unknown repeat offenders. It is a technique used by some of the greatest movie actors. Anyone see the last Monk? Great example of an actor trying to get inside the character's mind by trying to become him - it was a great episode. Throughout history, the greatest innovators came not from a lot of requirements or focus groups. They came from someone trying to satisfy their own need or anticipating the needs of others through a deep understanding of their profile. A good friend/co-worker of mine refers to it as the "If I were a customer, I would ..." (sung to the tune of "If I were a rich man, ..." and see the connection). Filling in the blanks without looking at the requirements is one way to know if you are there yet. I was traveling on business and yes - actually decided to read the airplane magazine. It did have a good article relevant to this idea called "Everybody Loves Wegmans" by Paul Goldsmith. Wegmans is an east coast grocery store chain that is bucking the trend by producing rising profits and expanding when most grocery chains are seeing their numbers fall. When the CEO, Danny Wegman, was asked about the keys to success behind their innovative approach and concepts, he replied about their philosophy as a "near-telepathic sense of customer service." He continues to explain: "Focus groups will tell you what they want to shop for, but that isn't enough anymore. Today, it is a retailer's job not only to deliver what the customers want, but also what they'd never think to ask for." We see some of this profiling in user interface design work but rarely do we use this for our other IT projects. This is the key to innovation and exceeding expectations. Become your customer and you can anticipate their needs - don't wait to be told.